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Apple, Google and Samsung are each pursuing the technology and regulatory approval to develop wearable devices that would allow diabetics to easily check their blood sugar. "All the biggies want glucose on their phone. Get it right, and there's an enormous payoff," said John Smith, a former executive at Johnson & Johnson's LifeScan.

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WellDoc has secured a partnership deal with LifeScan, a unit of the Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Care Cos., to collaborate on a digital type 2 diabetes health system. The deal calls for WellDoc to incorporate its BlueStar mobile therapeutic program into LifeScan's OneTouch Reveal app and OneTouch Verio Flex, a Bluetooth Smart-enabled blood glucose monitoring platform. Johnson & Johnson was also an investor in WellDoc's Series B financing round, which brought in $29.5 million.

A Gallup survey that questioned the effectiveness of social media ads is actually validation for social strategies that focus on building organic word-of-mouth, writes Marc Fischman, CEO of Hyperactivate. "[I]nstead of wasting significant budget trying to talk to people who actually don't care ... smart marketers are learning how to create and manage a reasonable number of highly leverageable relationships with enormous payoff," Fischman writes.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has invested in platforms and talent as she looks to create a media giant centered on theme-based digital magazines and native advertising. The company hopes to create content compelling enough that users see Yahoo as a "daily habit," with advertising that matches the content in look, tone and popularity.

Google has signed a deal with Italian eyewear-maker Luxottica, parent company of Ray-Ban and Oakley, to design and distribute Google Glass models. Luxottica will distribute the designer Glass models through retail outlets it controls, including LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut. Consumer adoption of Google Glass "is a fashion problem as much as it is a technology problem," said Astro Teller of Google X.

Health officials in the U.S. have issued a warning that counterfeit blood sugar test strips have been distributed nationwide and could give diabetics inaccurate results. The counterfeit strips being sold are for models of One Touch blood glucose monitors sold by the Johnson & Johnson unit LifeScan. The company said it notified the FDA as soon as it learned about the counterfeit strips and is "vigorously pursuing legal actions."